Sacred attaches sleazy biker blues, perilous fuzz rock and libidinous punk to swaggerin’ doom as age and experience channel youthful days, questionable decisions and collapsed veins while avoiding tragedy to kick ass like 1978 never went away.

While She Sleeps have delivered the best album so far about post-Brexit/post-election anxiety. You Are We is frantic and grim, preoccupied with personal and political disintegration, but it’s also huge.

Tracks like “Thorns” and “Dancing in Madness” continue the band’s patented crossbreed of smoky chugs and far-out sonic filigrees, furthering the emotional edge of their sound. For others, the band’s tendency towards soaring prettiness instead of sludge punishment might make Heartless a little light-handed, lacking the full steamroller crush of classic stoner rock outfits.

the Georgia-based quartet venture even further into their own by creating songs that are alternately bluesy, soulful and propulsive--and often all three. ... It’s rare to come across a band that can do so much so well.

This long-awaited solo project by Converge frontman Jacob Bannon is nothing like what fans would expect, and everything they could have hoped for.

“Our Finest Hour” is a speedy thrasher about being able to accept yourself in new situations. Actually, Overkill did just that with “Shine On,” which features fresh areas of groove, dynamics and lyrical contemplation.

Godless Prophets is as driven and vicious as anything the band has released with disembowlers like “This Is the Truth” and “Those Who Survived.”

Unsurprisingly, it sounds exactly like Teri Gender Bender fronting The Melvins--a fascinating concept in theory that turns out to be deliriously satisfying in practice.

The band deftly treads the fine line between revival and revision, blasting out fistfighting hard rock anthems like “Dancing with the Wrong Girl” and “Cold War Love” that synthesize Thin Lizzy’s flair for raging riffs, jazzy chords, twin-guitar harmonies, and ruggedly romantic words into something that’s both fresh-sounding and satisfyingly familiar.

The result is the least Insomnium-sounding record of its discography.

Touché Amoré’s music has always been intensely autobiographical and that introspection has reached peak levels on its fourth full-length, Stage Four.

Transcendence, the seventh release by his group is a diverse, multi-hued, cinematic offering that incorporates elements of prog, psychedelia, orchestral, and operatic metal without ever losing grasp of the importance of strong melodies.

Russian Circles deliver seven glorious cuts of cinematic elegance and regal thunder. Not to mention what might be its best album yet.

An evolution in sound from its debut album, Blues Pills serve up a masterful mix of soul and blues-rock that ferments into a tasty, tasty witches’ brew.

Of course the technical musicianship of the EP is top notch, but the form is what’s most striking.

Alternating between unsettling dissonance and bludgeoning force, the North American act’s sophomore effort showcases a crossbreed of stoner metal, sludge and noise that both enthralls and frightens the listener.

While Green’s falsetto is immediately distinctive, a pop-tinged ballad like “The Stutter Says a Lot” and the blazing screamo anthem “The Secret Meaning of Freedom” stand on their own as fully formed compositions. Second acts don’t usually sound this sweet.

This is one that truly has us at hello--or at least at “Reset,” the opening track of Metal Church’s first album with singer Mike Howe since 1993’s ‘Hanging in the Balance.’

Make no mistake, this album is not invoking bluegrass meadows and rolling hills. Instead, the stage is set to the cacophonous sound of Kentucky’s coalmines and devastating tornadoes for one helluva tale.

All told, it’s a huge and defiant return.

X (No Absolutes) is charged with brawn and brains--thrashy dynamics, chunky grooves, ferocious metal energy, and Tommy Victor’s sharp-tongued socio-political observations.

Fever Daydream may not be for everyone but there’s something about album’s inherent vulnerability that continues to resonate long after it ends.

Vintage-sounding yet definitely on its own trip, Dying Surfer Meets His Maker brings a sense of spiritual uplift to its mind-expanding sonic explorations, feeding your ears and soul simultaneously.

Whether it’s the Nine Inch Nails-meets John Coltrane scree of “The Last Stand,” the avant-jazz experimentation of “House of Warship” or the trippy classic rock hooks and ominous ambient drones of “House of Control,” IBS makes Marilyn Manson sound as rebellious as Ed Sheeran.

Polaris is, at last, the platonic ideal of a TesseracT album, the one where they get everything just right.

The lyrics are in a combination of Danish, Norwegian and Icelandic, so it’s anyone’s guess what Bruun is talking about. Luckily,the music speaks for itself.

Shone saws off a series of heaving, mechanized drones with names like “The Barge,” “Cauterize” and “Teething,” each a dizzying, pulsating and pounding exposition of man’s ultimate sonic collusion with machine.

No matter how aggressive the instrumentation, the music always manages to push things forward, as showcased by the avant-orchestral finale, "The Abyss."

On their eleventh studio album, CoF’s schlock-black metal sound is more alive than it has in a while.

Bleeder is equal parts musical acrobatics and strong songwriting that strikes an off-kilter balance somewhere between Queens of the Stone Age and The Dillinger Escape Plan.

If success means overpowering the senses with creepy, captivating dissonance, KEN Mode are clutching a real triumph.

Songs like “Heaven, Hell and Purgatory” will beat you down only to lift you up again, it’s a sonic ride worth taking.

As always, Fernow offers a challenge with his music. Those who accept it will be rewarded with an intensely vital listen.

While not necessarily remarkable, The Dead of the World is a reliable slab of unspeakable evil, and bodes well for Ascension’s bright future in a grim subgenre.

For the most part the album successfully rides the line between innovation and self-indulgence. In other words, if given a chance Desolation Sounds will challenge listeners as much as inspire circle pits.

It’s considerably more difficult to listen to than ‘Aesthetica’--the vocals often sound like a skipping CD--and largely forsakes that album’s triumphal feel for grating noise mash-ups (“Follow” and “Follow II”), angular electro jams (“Quetzalcoatl”) and synthetic horns (“Fanfare”).

Post-hardcore fans will certainly enjoy what is Falling in Reverse’s strongest record to date.

Five albums in to an unexpected late-career burst of greatness, grindcore pioneers Napalm Death have done it again with this awesomely titled album.

Raucous and honest, this album rocks with their trademark down-home stoner swagger.

Overall, though, most of these covers sound disappointingly similar to the originals.

Between the Stars is tight and melodic and unrelentingly hook-driven, poppy enough in places to recall Paramore or even (on the great new single “Set Me on Fire”) a more ferocious No Doub

The Tyranny of Will is all aces, too: From politically-charged rippers (“In Greed We Trust,” “Patriotic Shock”) to pants-pissing punk mischief (“Eyeball Gore,” “Your Kid’s an Asshole”), Iron Reagan have got you covered.

Despite Chamberlain’s strong pipes and pedigree, Broken Compass lacks the umph and innovation to be something truly exceptional.

The repetition of downtuned breakdowns will probably tire even deathcore superfans by album’s end. Solid–but this Witch could use a few new tricks.

For all their masks and uniforms, the emotions at the heart of Slipknot’s music have always been real and raw, and as they--and the audience that’s grown up with them--have no doubt discovered, the youthful angst that fired their early records has nothing on the grim realities of adulthood. From that deep well of pain, another great Slipknot record has emerged.

One of the Melvins’ most diverse and melodic, flirting with New Wave, glam metal, and psychobilly between epic guitar jams and gleefully twisted epics such as the closing “House of Gasoline.”

Back to Oblivion backs up the band’s 2012 reunion with a dozen melodically and dynamically diverse tracks.

If bong-rattling stoner doom is your cup of flayed meat, you won’t want to miss this demonic feast.

A prog-intensive album that often sounds closer to soggy Jethro Tull outtakes than anything in his band’s mighty back catalog.

While the new sound may alienate a few old fans, Reign of Terror is a solid album that should win over just as many new converts.

Real demonstrates that, even as the group’s chosen subgenre has lost the trendiness it possessed in the ’00s, metalcore can still sound fresh and exciting when done right.

These five tracks bridge the gap between pop punk and melodic hardcore in a way that’s so infectious that you’ll be too busy singing along to notice.

Thus rejuvenated and recharged, the Metal God and his cohorts have delivered their strongest record in over a decade.

As always, the Kurt Ballou production gives the album the depth and punch that it deserves, making this the band’s most dangerous declaration to date.

Guest appearances from Gojira’s Joe Duplantier and Subrosa violinists Sarah Pendleton and Kim Pack add extra nuance to an already dense masterpiece.

The result of all these change-ups is an album that is both aggressive and progressive, while still maintaining Linkin Park’s innate pop sensibility.

Wherever Tombs travel, they create evocative metallic nightmares most of their contemporaries only dream of crafting.

Across 17 tracks with titles like “Dark Brown Teeth,” “The Blithering Idiot,” and “Drunken Baby,” Osborne delivers concise down-tuned ditties full of booming vocal melodies and bizarro humor.

From the lumbering “Lungs” to doomy, dynamically intense epics such as “On Wretched Son,” “Swarming Funeral Mass,” and “See No Shelter Fevered Ones,” the relentless sturm and drang is not for the faith of heart, and there’s always a sneaking sense that Twilight is making this stuff up as it goes along.

Cleveland metallic-hardcore heavyweights Ringworm have delivered what should stand as their finest entry in their catalogue.

The second full-length offering from The Shine finds the Chuck Dukowski–approved Los Angeles skater/stoner-rock trio more or less picking up where their last album, 2012′s Primitive Blast, left off.

The second release from TBS’ reunited original lineup sees them getting their groove back.

Lyrical references to Charles Bukowski and Elizabeth Carter score egghead points, but the real smarts are in the taut and tight delivery of the 10 tracks.

Cynic’s shredders utilize their skills to construct great melodies and riffs, which often blossom into solid tunes that demand the listener’s attention.

Not the most fashionable influences, obviously, yet Digital Resistance feels more like real rebellion than a lot of modern metal.

It’s all the necessary B-adjectives–bludgeoning, brutal, burly--but it’s something else too; Bloodcurdling.

Like their spiritual and sonic forefathers in Khanate, Asunder, and Buried at Sea, their music is bleak, crushing, and decidedly off-kilter.

With Shelter, Alcest have abandoned bracing storm bursts, leaving a too monotonous calm.

Consistently hot, this should tide fans over until the next patrol arrives in, oh, 2016.

Calling the album a return to form does Skeletonwitch injustice, but the blackened thrashers definately sound rein quintet definitely sounds reinvigorated here.

Luckily, MLIW are excellent students and practitioners of the style [melodic post-hardcore that lurked on the outer edges of emo].

Aftershock is another worthy entry into Motörhead’s long discography, with 14 rollicking tracks of brawn, broads, and blazing riffs.

While the formula may sound intriguing, lackluster songwriting makes much of the record sound repetitive and uninspired.

Somehow, though, every song eventually leads to Myles Kennedy keening dramatically over guitar sturm und drang, and while that nicely showcase the band’s songwriting and instrumental skills, after a while it becomes predictable and monotonous.

Overall, Max & Co. keep things tasty on Savages.

Is Survived By isn’t all pit-fodder; the cinematic-sounding “Non Fiction” showcases a mastery of dynamics that’s equally as impressive as the heavy stuff.

TDWP's "sufferings" are modern-metal fans' "glory."

As eccentric as these tracks are, most of them wind up in a familiar place, with clean vocals ascending to growly, thundery choruses.

All in all, the record perfectly captures the band live–which, as anyone who saw them on this summer’s Mayhem Fest knows, is an experience in itself.

The record is exactly as advertised, despite three new members entering the lineup. Wrong has rarely sounded so right.

At times, this straightforward approach, along with a smoother production sound, strips the Massachusetts quartet of the nuanced breakdowns and guitar leads that made their previous material so captivating.

A 12-song set that went through a couple of permutations but still bristles with industrial-strength angst.

Our Own Masters delivers all the hairy, sweaty, twin-guitar insanity of their live shows, yet also contains some of their most unabashedly sophisticated moments.

Aptly named Queensrÿche, just like the band’s debut was titled 30 years ago, this album is a fresh new beginning of a revamped lineup that we will likely be hearing from for years to come.

A welcome return.

The Migration seems to wander a bit more than 2011’s focused and phenomenal The Collective, losing some steam by the last few tracks.

No one delivers big, punch-in-the-face motifs better than Amon Amarth, and the Swedish melodic-death-metal titans have excelled themselves on their ninth studio album.

TesseracT’s real strength is that they focus on the whole instead of getting bogged down with the intricacy of the parts.

From the anthemic confidence of “Back in the Game” to the speed-metal boogie of “Hungry,” frontman Joel O’Keeffe rasps out memorable, bluesy melodies without sacrificing the AC/DC-inspired passion of 2007’s Runnin’ Wild.

The tracks on Halo of Blood sound more like computerized vessels for showing off their considerable skills than songs played by actual human beings.

As ever, frontman niVek ohGr manages to make his vocals just as laceratingly intense as the saturated distortion of the electronics, while the lyrics are as angry as they are eloquent.

In the end, Ultraviolet’s finest moments occur when Kylesa venture farthest from their proven strengths and step into the unknown.

Josh Homme and fellow Queens Troy Van Leeuwen, Dean Fertita, and Michael Shuman have gotten back on beam for the band’s first album in six years, apparently rediscovering the joys of creating robotic, riff-oriented hard-rock songs.

Suffice it to say, Tears on Tape is a sentimentally sweet, sonically stunning, and beautifully packaged album.

[Drowning Pool have] managed to produce consistently killer albums with an unmistakable sound. This continues with album No. 5.... The weakest songs here are the singles.

Ultimately these well-place segues are but a welcome respite from the pummeling power of the riff.

The Color Morale never strays too far from the tried-and-true tropes of their subgenre on full-length No. 3, but still manages to craft tunes that are passionate and memorable.

The band’s primary objective is to lift listeners off their feet and keep them floating, with only occasional handholds for stability.